Bitcoin falls below $77,000 as a Nasdaq chip sell-off sets off a liquidation wave

Bitcoin fell from $78,767 to $75,986 within an hour on Thursday afternoon, a drop of about 3.5 percent in 60 minutes. Over 24 hours the loss stands at 5.3 percent; in euro terms Bitcoin trades at around €67,900 (CoinGecko, as of Thursday afternoon). The trigger was a sell-off in chip stocks on Wall Street that pushed the Nasdaq down almost four percent and set off a wave of forced liquidations in the crypto market.

For investors in Germany this is above all a question of their own position. Anyone holding without leverage loses book value but no coins. Anyone who went long with leverage may already have been closed out in that hour. And anyone who wants to buy more should know which price levels count now and which dates are coming up on Friday.

Bitcoin price on November 5: from $78,767 to $75,986 in one hour

CoinGecko's price data show the move clearly. On Thursday afternoon Bitcoin was still at $78,767, 25 minutes later at $77,021, and an hour after the starting point at $75,986. The 24-hour high was $80,882 on Wednesday evening. The recovery after the US midterm elections, which had lifted Bitcoin above $80,000 on Wednesday, was wiped out within a single afternoon. cryptoticker.io covered that recovery on November 4 in its report on the jump above $80,000.

Shortly before the drop, the mood was still friendly. The crypto.news portal reported a price of around $79,356 and a daily gain of 1.3 percent in the early afternoon. The reversal therefore did not come from the crypto market itself. It came with the opening of the US stock exchanges and the subsequent slide in technology shares.

According to CoinGecko, the total market capitalisation of all cryptocurrencies fell 6.0 percent to around $2.58 trillion. Bitcoin's share of it, known as Bitcoin dominance, is 59.1 percent. Dominance measures how much of the total market value falls on Bitcoin; if it rises in a falling market, the other coins are losing more.

Nasdaq chip sell-off: the SOX semiconductor index loses more than 9 percent

The starting point was on Wall Street. According to the Yahoo Finance live blog, stocks suddenly fell on Thursday. At 9:42 a.m. Chicago time the Nasdaq was down 3.8 percent, the S&P 500 2.1 percent and the Dow Jones 1 percent. The Philadelphia semiconductor index, SOX for short, lost more than 9 percent. Nvidia gave up around 7 percent according to the figures there, Micron 12 percent and AMD 13 percent. Qualcomm slumped after its quarterly results. According to Yahoo Finance, the chip sell-off erased around $2 trillion in market value and undid the gains of Wednesday's post-midterm recovery.

Yahoo Finance cites several factors at once: the Democrats' clear win in the midterm elections and what it means for spending on AI infrastructure and its regulation, the situation around Iran, quarterly results and the labour market data. Yahoo Finance also links Bitcoin's weakness to the $6.3 billion Binance hack of the previous week and to uncertainty over the Clarity Act. How that hack was connected to the stock market crash at the end of October is laid out by cryptoticker.io in a separate analysis.

Bitcoin falling together with tech stocks is not a new pattern. When large investors cut risk, they sell first what has swung the most. That includes chip stocks after a long AI rally as well as cryptocurrencies. Bitcoin trades around the clock, so the pressure often shows there faster than in other markets.

Liquidations: more than $560 million in long positions closed in one hour

Forced liquidations accelerated the fall. A liquidation is the automatic closing of a leveraged position by the exchange as soon as the posted collateral no longer covers the loss. With a long position, a bet on rising prices, the exchange then sells itself and pushes the price down further. The result is a chain of liquidations in which each closed position triggers the next.

According to CoinGlass data cited by CryptoPotato, positions worth more than $560 million were liquidated in the past hour, $530 million of them on the long side. Over 24 hours, more than 165,000 traders were affected. The largest single liquidation was $6.62 million on Hyperliquid. For comparison: during the recovery to $81,000, around $380 million in short positions had previously been force-closed, according to CryptoPotato. Within a single day the market has hit both sides.

CryptoPotato also cites the research firm The Kobeissi Letter, which calculates that the S&P 500 lost $2.2 trillion in market value in about an hour. Liquidation figures differ depending on the time window and when the data were pulled. Other reports from the same day give values of between around $300 million and almost $600 million for individual hours, so the range is more reliable than any single number.

Ether, Solana and XRP: altcoins fall harder than Bitcoin

As in most sell-offs, the larger altcoins are hit harder than Bitcoin. Ethereum lost 6.2 percent to around $2,272 according to CoinGecko, roughly €2,025. Solana fell 6.3 percent to $90.58 and XRP 5.0 percent to $1.26. Among the 25 largest coins excluding stablecoins, Uniswap at minus 11.0 percent and NEAR at minus 10.1 percent were at the bottom of the list.

The day before, Ether had still been scratching at the $2,500 mark. The 24-hour high was $2,441, and late on Thursday afternoon the price stood at $2,264, its low of the day. For altcoin holders this means the swing on the way down is larger than for Bitcoin, and anyone trading altcoins with leverage reaches their liquidation price correspondingly sooner.

Jobless claims and the Fed: why 189,000 initial claims dampen rate-cut hopes

Alongside the chip sector, US monetary policy plays a role. On Thursday morning the US Labor Department reported initial jobless claims for the week to October 31. According to figures compiled by crypto.news from US News, AP and Reuters, there were 189,000 against an expected 196,000. That is the lowest level since mid-July, and initial claims have been at 200,000 or below for eight weeks.

A strong labour market is a double-edged signal for stocks and cryptocurrencies. It argues against a recession but gives the US Federal Reserve less reason to keep cutting rates. After the October meeting the policy rate stands at 3.75 to 4 percent. On this reading, traders could price in fewer rate cuts, which weighs on risk assets. A lower rate makes assets without a running yield, such as Bitcoin, more attractive; if it stays high, that tailwind is missing.

The ETF data from the previous day were still friendly. According to crypto.news, a net $74.6 million flowed into US spot Bitcoin ETFs on November 4, after three days of outflows. Fidelity's FBTC took in $236.7 million, while BlackRock's IBIT recorded outflows of $201.2 million. Figures for today's trading session will only be available after the US market close.

Options expiry and the jobs report: two dates on Friday

Friday brings two events that could move the price again. First, the US jobs report for October is released. According to crypto.news, the FactSet consensus is for around 65,000 new jobs and an unemployment rate of 4.2 percent. If the report comes in much stronger, many traders expect the debate about missing rate cuts to continue.

Second, Bitcoin options expire on Friday. On November 4, cryptoticker.io had counted 24,912 call contracts against 8,223 put contracts for this date, so far more bets on rising than on falling prices. An option is the right to buy (call) or sell (put) Bitcoin at a fixed price. After the slide below $77,000, many of these calls are far out of the money and, in the view of many traders, will expire worthless. The starting position before the drop is set out in the analysis of the options expiry.

Bitcoin price levels: $75,600 below, $80,000 above

On the downside, the next level is Wednesday morning's low. After the midterm results, Bitcoin had fallen to around $75,600 according to CryptoPotato, a seven-week low. Late on Thursday afternoon the price was just under $400 above it. If this zone does not hold, short-term support is missing, and more long positions with a tight liquidation price come under pressure.

On the upside, crypto.news had named the zone from $78,000 to $79,500 as support at midday. That zone has now been broken and turns into resistance, an area where sellers typically reappear. Above it lie the round $80,000 mark and the 24-hour high of $80,882. Only a close above $80,000 would make up for Thursday's drop.

Price levels are not a forecast. They only show at which prices a lot of trading took place in the recent past. Anyone looking for a longer view will find scenarios and price targets for the coming months on the Bitcoin price prediction page.

Bitcoin price drop and tax: holding period, losses and leverage for investors in Germany

A day like this tempts people into quick decisions. For investors in Germany, three points matter more than the price itself.

Holding period and offsetting losses on Bitcoin

Under Section 23 of the German Income Tax Act, gains from selling Bitcoin are tax-free if more than one year passes between purchase and sale. This holding period is the main reason not to sell in a panic: anyone who exits shortly before the period ends may turn a tax-free gain into a taxable one. Conversely, losses from sales within the period can be offset against gains from other private sales. The exemption limit for such gains is €1,000 a year. A crypto tax tool shows you for each purchase when the period ends and which loss could be offset.

Check leverage and liquidation price

Anyone holding leveraged positions should know the liquidation price of each one and check whether the posted collateral can absorb a further drop of five to ten percent. Thursday's hour showed how quickly a price reaches the liquidation level at high leverage. A smaller position with little or no leverage survives an afternoon like this; a large one at ten times leverage often does not.

A buying route with a MiCA licence, and custody

Anyone who wants to buy after the pullback should do so through a provider licensed under the EU's MiCA regulation. Since the end of 2024, MiCA has set out EU-wide which obligations crypto service providers must meet, including the segregation of client assets. An overview of crypto exchanges with fees and licences helps you choose. Larger holdings belong in your own wallet after the purchase, because last week's Binance hack showed that even large exchanges are vulnerable.

Bitcoin below $77,000: under $75,600 the next low looms

Thursday's drop has a clear trigger on Wall Street and was amplified by liquidations in the crypto market. Whether it widens will be decided at the $75,600 mark and by Friday's dates. Three steps help you work through the day in an orderly way:

1. Document holdings and holding periods: Check for each purchase when the one-year period ends before you sell. A portfolio tracker with a tax report does this automatically.
2. Reduce leverage or trade without it: If you trade Bitcoin or Ether, the broker comparison lists providers offering trading without leverage and a clear cost structure.
3. Store what you buy: What you hold for the long term is safer on a hardware wallet than on an exchange.

(As of November 5, 2026. This article is not investment advice. Prices and fee structures change; check the terms with the provider before you buy.)